Our customers connected with us at places such as the Golden Gate Park, Pier 39, and in and around the city. The SBU caught the eyes of many passer byes and we offered test rides well into dusk. When offering test rides, we asked riders to fill out a contact sheet and add their email address. As expected, many test riders faked their email address; however, one guy asked if he could give us his real email address after enjoying the SBU for a solid 25 minutes.

On Tuesday we walked around pier 39, where we saw the street magician Bob Besmehn perform. We loved his balancing acts, one of which included balancing on a 3 wheeled unicycle. We figured this was the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves, so we connected with Bob after his performance.

We attended the San Francisco New Tech Meetup, where attendees flocked to our product and asked to hear more. Not only were they fascinated by our unique product, but we ourselves were blown away by the caliber of products and services, such as HashtagSell and Waze, that are being developed.

Thursday was by far one of our biggest days as we visited the San Francisco Motorcycle Club, the second oldest motorcycle club in the US. The club members were extremely welcoming and funny, making us feel right at home despite riding a product that has only one wheel.

Monday was a short, but important day. We met with Gabe Slate, a tech reporter from KRON TV (a local SF news channel). Our SBU was a feature on Monday’s broadcast and can be seen on youtube (we’ve linked it at the bottom for your convenience). We spent maybe an hour on the Embarcadero with Gabe and fans, showcasing the SBU and teaching new riders.

Our trip was very successful and we can’t wait to add new retailers to our dealer page in the next coming days!

The post Self Balancing Unicycle in San Francisco first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Reward: Get a n3rdy shirt for you and a friend!

<question>
What is the N3RDIEST thing you and a friend could do while riding an SBU?
</question>

<rules>
1. Share this photo + your response.

2. Tag your N3RDY friend.

3. Tag our fb page in your post.

– Ends Friday @ midnight (4/19)
– 10 most creative responses get shirts for winner + friend
– US only
</rules>

The post Full Frontal Nerdity Contest first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Last week I jumped in on Mr. H’s 4^th grade class to present my story and to inspire the virtues of entrepreneurialism. I was invited because they were engaged in a miniature “Shark Tank” as a lesson on business and having been on the TV show, “Shark Tank” myself I was a great guest speaker for them to have in. My presentation really focused on two important ideas – setting goals/paths and seeing challenges as opportunities.

We pumped up the kids before hand by riding the SBU around at recess. In about 30 seconds we had at least half of the playground swarming us as we demonstrated riding on the SBU and even doing a few tricks (just to show off). It reminded me of how much I loved recess. I almost jumped off of the SBU and challenged a kid (or two) to a round of tetherball!

As we entered the classroom and jumped into “story time” all 23 of these kids were engaged and excited about listening to my story and they had plenty of questions to prove their interest.  A few of my favorite questions/comments are listed below:

–  How much money does an entrepreneur/you make?

–  How did you determine your retail price?

–  Can you make a snowboard that has a motor to pull you up the hill? PS… I want 10% of that idea!

The kids also eagerly informed me of their very own business ideas and I was excited to see how many of them actually had cool ideas.  Some of the kids’ ideas needed a little more help but I was happy to suggest alternative ways of looking at their company/product that could help set them apart from their “competition” before they get in to the Shark Tank.

This was the youngest set of students that I have spoken in front of and yet the most inspiring. I know that many of those kids left school thinking how awesome it could be to passionately follow one of their ideas. I look forward to many more speaking engagements in the future and hope that other companies share in the honor of shaping and inspiring tomorrows future business leaders.

David Martschinske
Chief Operating Officer
dmart@focusdesigns.com
phone: 360-3CYCLES
focusdesigns.com – Home of the Self Balancing Unicycle!

The post Focus Designs in the Classroom first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

We took both the V2 and V3 out for a side by side comparison on a small incline and did some official shopping cart push tests in the QFC parking lot… I’m sure they were happy.

The post SBU V3 versus SBU V2 (Performance) first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Wow, our last post was made in the summer months – it has definitely been a while since we’ve kept the world updated on whats going on over here.  We had increasingly more traction all over the world selling SBU’s.  We’ve had a lot of awesome moments this last year but nothing tops meeting and connecting with our customers.  We plan on more tours and more cool stuff for our customers in 2012.  We’ll be a little more specific in following posts.

Until then… stay nerdy!

The post Hello 2012! first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

I was really excited to meet Woz and yes, his player number is 3.14  If you line up the whole team (STeam) in a row they all spell out pi to the 16th number.  That gives you an idea of the kind of people I was running in to on a reglar basis at the Woz Cup 2011.  Speaking of meeting interesting people, a lot of you may know Smosh. Ian does a lot of YouTube video parodies and made a pretty interesting video of what he thought of the Segway Polo Cup 2011.

And before we start the SBU Polo league, I thought I’d give it a trial run.  I may have looked like a dingus out there but at least I had an awesome time playing polo with the Segs4Vets crew while on the SBU!

If you’d like to see more images of our trip go here

The post Segway Polo and the Self Balancing Unicycle first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Many of you SBU enthusiasts know who Trevor Blackwell is but you might not be aware of his most-recent endeavor, the Anybot (a personal robotic avatar).  As we traveled through California on our Left Coast Tour we had a chance to meet Trevor along with a few of the Anybot engineers and some people from the Y-Combinator (including Olark).  The whole crew was able to pick up the SBU fairly quickly and before long we were SBUing along the street with them at close to top speed – all while carrying the stedicam to our 5dmk2 for our daily vlog. It was really cool to meet and speak with a bunch of like-minded entrepreneurs and of course to see them lovin’ the SBU!

The post Focus Designs meets Trevor Blackwell and the Anybot first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Watch our vlog for our zany adventures.

The post Left Coast Tour Day 7 – Irvine and Beverly Hills first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

Today’s checklist:

Let people try the SBU: Check

Cruise down Laguna Beach: Check

Have a friend take you out for $40 steaks: Check

Experience guest service inside the men’s room: Check

Yeah, today was rockin’ and I think we’re in love with the area here as well as the people.  We met so many cool people and ended the night at Javier’s Cantina & Grill where the food was impeccable and the service was even better. Along the way we ran into a bunch of party-goers, were chased down by people that saw us from their cars, and met a few protesters. Take a look at the video and see for yourself what we did today.

On the business-side of things, Daniel and I also sought out the counsel of a more seasoned entrepreneur and helped confirm our confidence in our current business strategy.

We are continuing to visit specialty bike shops in the area over here and look forward to meeting more awesome shops!

-DMart, Out!

The post Left Coast Tour Day 5 – Laguna Beach first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..

On Thursday, we went to a really cool company in Emeryville, CA and hung out with a ton of their employees. They had a huge indoor atrium and we were able to ride in there and train a lot of their employees. We also met up with one of our past customers and made plans for dinner. Woot Woot. It was awesome to re-connect with him.

Later we visited Segway of Oakland and had a bomb time with the workers and owner there. They were pretty laid back and all of em got on the SBU and gave it a shot. They definitely liked it and will probably also become an SBU dealer shortly. Woot!

For those of you who keep asking, we are finally accepting applications for dealers. Shoot an email to sales@focusdesigns.com to see if you qualify.

-N3rd H3rd OUT!

The post Left Coast Tour Day 4 – Oakland, CA first appeared on Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc..